In a statement issued on Thursday, Sher Zaman said: “Education is one of the foundation stones of PTI’s human development agenda. PTI strongly believes that education helps the less fortunate escape poverty and hunger, and improves society morally. It has been considered a tool for long-term development throughout history.”

Sher Zaman who is also candidate of PTI PS-110 candidate stated that vast improvement to the government education system is essential in terms of both physical infrastructure and quality. Parents of school going children are facing financial hardship in sending their children to private schools due to perennial increases in tuition and fees.

“The outgoing Sindh Chief Minister when he assumed office in 2016 declared an “education emergency” in the province but in the end became a disaster with half of the government schools not having electricity and still there are 6 million out-of-school children, even though hundreds of billions of rupees are allocated each year on education.”

“The latest Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) show that learning outcomes among students across the province are low with average scores for language, maths and science are well below 50 per cent at both the Grade 5 (class V) and the Grade 8 (class VIII) levels. Scores in maths and science are especially poor (both under 30 per cent at both grade levels).”

Sher Zaman promises that a PTI government would implement education reforms in Sindh similar to KPK such as Improving physical infrastructure such as boundary walls, drinking water, toilets, electrification, furniture, computer labs.

Merit based recruitment of teaching staff. Uniform and universal assessments for 5th and 8th grade assessment to diagnose learning difficulties for schools and teachers, help identify specific areas for professional development of teachers in the middle and higher schools. Speed Literacy Program for grown up students age 9-16 in evening schools. Independent Monitoring Unit, Free textbooks etc.

It is crucial that we improve the government school system in Sindh so that parents that cannot afford private schools can send their children for free or nominal cost to government schools and still receive a quality education, he concluded.